1. PhilTasco's Avatar
    I happened to read an article about TCL and I had not realized that it was a state owned company in China. Anyone have concerns the hardware is going to have spyware or backdoors built in? We hear so many stories about the Chinese government involved in hacking schemes. I confess I am now having second thoughts on the Mercury.

    Posted via CB10
    anon(8679041) and KellyM4 like this.
    02-23-17 04:32 PM
  2. PhilTasco's Avatar
    Nuts. This shows how committed to my Q10 keyboard I have been. Never noticed the DTEK phones were TCL too, cause I never even considered buying one. Been drooling for the Mercury, but BlackBerry privacy manufactured by a company owned and controlled by the Chinese government does not give me warm and fuzzies.....

    Posted via CB10
    02-23-17 04:38 PM
  3. ominaxe's Avatar
    This has been mentioned a lot here and most people have said that BlackBerry is in charge of software which is extremely secure. The chances of this happening are slim.

    Even so, I'm not CIA, an Engineer for the navy, or the CEO of some company. I've got nothing to hide, so what do I care?
    02-23-17 04:39 PM
  4. conite's Avatar
    BlackBerry has a hand in the process (sets the basic conditions of the brand) and controls the software 100%. No worries.

    Foxconn also has factories all over China, and you know what kind of fruit they make.
    pizzawheel likes this.
    02-23-17 04:39 PM
  5. krazyatom's Avatar
    TCL is state owned company by China? That's something new to me. What about huawei? I've buying their phones lately.
    02-23-17 04:43 PM
  6. hplovecraft's Avatar
    Mhmm...nobody. Aren't like nearly all phones made in China... iphone included.

    CB10 on my PP SE
    02-23-17 04:44 PM
  7. PhilTasco's Avatar
    I got curious and went to the TCL USA website they have a bio of the "founder" and no details on ownership. Other articles indicated it was state owned, so that's my source. Just not thrilled with critical infrastructure being owned, controlled and subsidized by foreign governments.

    Posted via CB10
    02-23-17 05:09 PM
  8. PhilTasco's Avatar
    And as to the iphone I have always counted it's manufacturing location against it--particularly when you read the stories about the poor conditions for workers. I figure I will have to suck it up, but I sure hope our governments (Canada and US) are monitoring it. I will be reassured if I see President Trump with a Mercury.

    Posted via CB10
    02-23-17 05:13 PM
  9. conite's Avatar
    I got curious and went to the TCL USA website they have a bio of the "founder" and no details on ownership. Other articles indicated it was state owned, so that's my source. Just not thrilled with critical infrastructure being owned, controlled and subsidized by foreign governments.

    Posted via CB10
    TCL is a public company with a small part being state-owned, which is common practice in China.
    Nathan Conley and pizzawheel like this.
    02-23-17 05:15 PM
  10. blackberrybrad's Avatar
    I got curious and went to the TCL USA website they have a bio of the "founder" and no details on ownership. Other articles indicated it was state owned, so that's my source. Just not thrilled with critical infrastructure being owned, controlled and subsidized by foreign governments.

    Posted via CB10
    I don't know how TCL is "critical infrastructure"?

    Posted via CB10
    02-23-17 05:16 PM
  11. Thud Hardsmack's Avatar
    I got curious and went to the TCL USA website they have a bio of the "founder" and no details on ownership. Other articles indicated it was state owned, so that's my source. Just not thrilled with critical infrastructure being owned, controlled and subsidized by foreign governments.

    Posted via CB10
    "Other articles"? Links are good.
    02-23-17 05:27 PM
  12. cooboo's Avatar
    if you were Chinese government, would you bother installing spyware in a near zero market share brand?
    02-23-17 05:30 PM
  13. TheBirdDog's Avatar
    if you were Chinese government, would you bother installing spyware in a near zero market share brand?
    Not only that, but I am sure that the Chinese government would care far more about knowing what their own citizens are doing and I'm very certain they don't care about what North Americans are SnapChatting to eachother.

    I'm pretty sure that we think we are far more important than we are. I'm not saying that security and privacy shouldn't be a concern but, to think that the Chinese government has any agenda that could possibly involve you as an individual, you must be in pretty deep!
    02-23-17 05:46 PM
  14. chang69's Avatar
    So are all the apple, Samsung and 90% of electronics.
    02-23-17 06:38 PM
  15. Carjackd's Avatar
    Isn't everything made in China? Where is the problem?
    02-23-17 08:21 PM
  16. yyz321's Avatar
    Don't worry, China tries to monitor everything within their boarders from individual people to foreign businesses... and even businesses/organizations outside their boarders.
    State-sponsored hacks?
    02-23-17 08:28 PM
  17. ToniCipriani's Avatar
    TCL is state owned company by China? That's something new to me. What about huawei? I've buying their phones lately.
    Only ZTE is partially state owned. Huawei is privately owned.

    Source: my friend works there.
    krazyatom and Nathan Conley like this.
    02-23-17 08:33 PM
  18. Techno-guy's Avatar
    Good thread. I've wondered quite a bit about this too. We have to trust and hope that Blackberry (Canada) controls the software so tightly that there can't be any secret TCL phoning home to China with data (which, incidentally, has happened with some past Chinese products including the BLU Android phone recently as well as Lenovo computers which are now on the Dept of Defense ban list).

    That said, I'm pretty confident that security researchers would pick this up pretty easily if it happened (I certainly will be looking closely for strange occurrences) and it would surely be the end of the Blackberry brand as well as TCL in the U.S. and Europe so you've got to think that they would never take a chance like this.
    02-23-17 10:46 PM
  19. antonrr's Avatar
    What phones aren't made in China?

    Posted via CB10
    02-23-17 10:49 PM
  20. Nathan Conley's Avatar
    Mhmm...nobody. Aren't like nearly all phones made in China... iphone included.

    CB10 on my PP SE
    Not Samsung (South Korea), but a BlackBerry made in China is not concerning at all.

    The Chinese phone concern are phones like Blu. Data miners paradise, cloud phones.
    02-23-17 11:30 PM
  21. whatsever's Avatar
    Not all chinese product are with malware like Apple. O sorry Apple has just a backdoor to America. Both brands have a hand in there manufacturing in China so it's save from chinees hands.

    Also beware about US products and services that are collecting your online footprints like facebook, whatsapp . You must minimise that. Privacy is Freedom.

    Posted via CB10
    02-23-17 11:38 PM
  22. zensen's Avatar
    Others have mentioned the software is being handled by BlackBerry. (can't stop the Google tracking as much being that's it android)

    Anything out of the ordinary would be checked by BlackBerry before it boots into the OS. This means were Less likely to hear about those other Chinese manufactured devices that have been collecting data.

    A lot of phones are built in China these days with parts sourced from different vendors.. with those parts most likely sourced from China too

    Those deals done in India and Indonesia would be manufactured locally I assume (not mercury)



    Posted via CB10
    02-23-17 11:53 PM
  23. NG888's Avatar
    If your worried about the device being made in China, then you shouldn't be worried about just smartphones, everything is made there.
    grungedude91 likes this.
    02-24-17 01:31 AM
  24. anon(4243545)'s Avatar
    Everything is done in China; Chinese doesn't mean cheap, it depends on what the purchaser asks: Chinese industries craft both iPhones and Cubots, so don't warry, BlackBerry devices will always focus on hardware quality.
    02-24-17 04:07 AM
  25. sid89's Avatar
    What China could hack (considering hacking software is installed) from a normal general public person like me? What could be the implications and importance of such hacking tech installed in the hardware? By the way is it possible practically for China government to do that??

    Posted via CB10
    02-24-17 07:19 AM
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